


It's Not Love...

by ivyspinners



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-19
Updated: 2012-10-19
Packaged: 2017-11-16 14:39:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/540555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyspinners/pseuds/ivyspinners
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Haruno Sakura refuses to be weak, and Sasuke finds himself looking for her without even thinking about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Not Love...

ii.

She did not seek him out. In retrospect, that was probably why she fainted at the sight of his head sticking out of the ground, leaving him rolling his eyes and terribly, hopelessly annoyed.

He waited not-so-patiently for her to wake again.

iii.

The kunai kept nearly, nearly slipping out of her sweaty palms, and her fingers succumbed to a fine trembling as she imagined losing her grip. She raised it, far too slowly, in defence of Tazuna. Protect the client, she reminded herself, words sliding as quickly, as steadily through her mind as if they were printed across the dusty paper of an ancient scroll. Focus on the task; focus on the fact that Sasuke-kun was winning, and she that had graduated too.

If Sasuke had thought about it, he would have scoffed at the idea of the attack rousing the faintest fear -- of losing, of being hurt, of being killed. Not when they were so slow; so clumsy; so easy to take down with Academy-level moves. He did not think about it; adrenaline drowning out all else, he attacked and defended, as instinctive as breathing, as instinctive as snatching a quick glance out of the corner of his eye, to find Sakura's kunai raised, ready.

iv.

"Like this," Tsunade instructed briskly, the tips of her fingers glowing soft, eerie blue. Sakura narrowed her eyes, fist clenched, and FORCED the chakra into her palms, towards her nails, until she imagined her fingers beginning to tear and blister, chakra fighting to explode out. She bit down on her lip, sudden, sharper pain to distract her from the fire in her hands.

When that wasn't enough, Sakura's eyes slipped shut for half a moment, just enough time for an image to blossom beneath her eyelids: trailing Sasuke's footsteps, Naruto by her side, catching up to her lost team-mate. Bringing him home by words, unless he refused, in which case the words would be: "That wasn't an offer."

Tears of frustration gathered at the corners of her eyes, warm, threatening to spill out. She gritted her teeth.

v.

But at Orochimaru's lair, two years of dreams -- and days of searching -- threatening to clog her throat, he slipped past her punch as though she weren't even aiming at him.

But at the very last moment, his neck exposed, she couldn't do what she'd sought Sasuke out for -- his early death -- and only Kakashi's sudden appearance kept her from breathing her last.

In between those two meetings, she knew, Sasuke had defeated Orochimaru, had defeated a member of the Akatsuki, had defeated his brother, had found a new team. Success after success, except for the failures that she didn't know about: how he hadn't escaped the Akatsuki's grasp, after all, just like how he'd never quite been able to stop catching flickers of those he cared about, in the corner of his eye.

In her head, her long-held image of their reunion began to change.

i.

"You," Ino instructed firmly, "are going to get angry. Like, now." She spun Sakura around by her shoulders and faced her towards her bullies.

"I don't need to, do I?" Sakura protested.

"Someday," Ino said, "Not only will you need to. You'll want to."

vi.

It was ironic that, after all those months of searching, all those years dreaming of hounding his footsteps and dragging him back -- Sakura and Naruto found him at an inn.

On one of their missions for the war, completely, utterly, unrelated for Sasuke, except for the way their minds lingered on Sasuke, still.

She did not faint, and he would have been wise to pretend to have. Rather, tree trunks shattered and the ground cracked, and fireballs lit the sky deep, foreboding red. Her kunai still trembled in her fingers, and her palms were still sweaty, and he was still so. Damned. Fast.

Beneath a cloud of ash, within boundaries marked by rapidly snapping demon tails and streaks of fire, Sakura closed her eyes. Just for a moment -- just enough time for her fingers to begin to glow blue, her last drops of chakra gathering in her fist. She'd been looking forward to this moment for a very, very long time.

However inaccurate her imagination had been about actually catching up to him, she'd been right to consider his refusal to return.

Sakura was slower than him, so her first three attempts to catch him with her fists failed. Even with his back turned, even with his attention focused on Naruto -- somehow, he still caught her in the corner of his eye, or something, because he evaded. He was tiring, though, the effort it took to counter both of them, to attack of them, sapping his strength.

When he twisted to avoid a line of Naruto clones thudding on the ground -- that was when she nailed him.

By the time he'd recovered, Sakura had disabled one of his arms, and Naruto, much less efficiently -- but much more enthusiastically -- had begun on the other. It didn't take much longer after that to pound him into the dirt. Sakura was surprised at how satisfying it felt to look down, and realise they'd won.

Even if Naruto, in his haste, fell unconscious after that, and Sakura had to drag both of them home.

vii.

It's not love if there's no hate.


End file.
